Under Obama, Police Have Never Been Safer. Huh, Who Knew?

Following the shooting of police officers in Dallas this week, conservatives raced to Twitter to blame President Barack Obama, but the data doesn’t support their complaints.

Former Rep. Joe Walsh tweeted, “Obama’s words & [Black Lives Matter]’s deeds have gotten cops killed.” Rep. Steve King claimed the shooting had “roots” in the “anti-white/cop events illuminated by Obama.”

But according to an analysis by the Chicago Tribune, blaming Obama or Black Live Matter activists, who began protesting shootings by police following the death of Michael Brown, isn’t supported by any of the data available. In fact, their claims are outright false.

The Officers Down Memorial Page paints a different picture than conservatives would have the public believe. The site tracks law enforcement officers murdered in the line of duty in real time and shows an average of 101 police officers deliberately killed each year under the Reagan administration. Under George H.W. Bush that number fell to 90, to 81 under Clinton and 72 deaths per year under George W. Bush.

As for the Obama administration, that number has continued to drop. The average number of police murdered during his presidency has fallen to an average 62 deaths each year through 2015. Looking at projections for 2016, that number stays the same.

There are so few officers being killed intentionally that just the Dallas shootings skew the data showing a 44 percent increase. Without the murders this week, the year-over-year rise would only have been 17 percent.

This isn’t about better medical care and quicker response time either. Under Obama’s administration, assaults on police officers have dropped as well. The FBI reports that in 1988, the final year of the Reagan administration, police had 15.9 assaults per every 100 law enforcement officers. However, at the end of the Clinton administration in 2000, that number dropped to 12.7 assaults for every 100 officers. Under the Bush administration, it fell again 11.3. The trend has continued under Obama’s administration. The most recent data from the FBI shows that in 2014 it decreased to 9.0.

Facts, they always ruin the narrative of the ignorant! 

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West 

GUILTY COP BLAMES VICTIM IN HIS OWN DEATH

Days after becoming the first New York police officer found guilty of an on-duty shooting in more than a decade, Officer Peter Liang claims he is not responsible for Akai Gurley’s death. Responding to a $50 million lawsuit filed over a year ago by the mother of Gurley’s child, Kimberly Ballinger, Liang and his former partner have filed court papers that blame the shooting on Gurley.

Liang shot Gurley in the chest while the 28-year-old victim was walking down a dark stairwell. Liang, who maintains his gun “just went off,” fired when he heard a noise. Neither he nor his former partner, Officer Shaun Landau, administered CPR. Melissa Butler, Gurley’s girlfriend at the time, said Liang walked away without offering any medical assistance.

Liang was ultimately convicted of second-degree manslaughter and officer misconduct, while Landau was fired from the NYPD.

But according to documents obtained by the New York Daily News, the two maintain that “the alleged incident and damages, if any, were wholly or in part caused by the culpable conduct.”

The language is standard for a wrongful death defense, but Ballinger still felt it was inappropriate in this case. “I can’t believe the police officers are trying to say that Akai did something to cause this wrongful shooting and his death, when all he did was try to walk down a public staircase,” she told the New York Daily News. In addition to the two officers, her wrongful death lawsuit also faults the city and the New York City Housing Authority.

Liang and Landau are currently represented by the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA).

“Since we are required to file an answer to the complaint prior to any discovery being conducted, without access to any investigatory reports, we would be remiss in our duty not to include such a cross claim in our answer, so that’s what we did,” their lawyer told the New York Daily News.

Gurley is far from the first person to be blamed for his own harm by law enforcement. At the time of Gurley’s death, the NYPD was also launching a public relations campaign to argue that Eric Garner, who died from an illegal chokehold by a police officer, was complicit in his own killing. Rank-and-file police officers and police union officials claimed that Garner resisted arrest and should not have been selling the illegal cigarettes that triggered the police encounter. Lawyers for the officer who used the illegal maneuver also said Garner had to be breathing in order to say “I can’t breathe.”

“What we did not hear from the mayor is that you can not go out and break the law. […] You cannot resist arrest,” PBA President Patrick Lynch said of Garner’s death. “We need to teach our children to respect police officers.”

[Cross-posted from thinkprogress]

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STAFF WRITER

400 DAYS LATER

After a prolonged legal battle, Chicago police released a video of one of their officers, Jason Van Dyke, shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times Wednesday.

The video shows McDonald carrying a small knife, walking away from Van Dyke before the officer opens fire. The entire shooting took about 15 seconds, and McDonald was lying on the ground for 13 of them. An officer appears to kick at McDonald’s body after shooting him.



Van Dyke was finally charged with first degree murder more than a year after the shooting. Though State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has had the video for a year, the charges came days after a judge ordered the police to release the damning footage. City leaders quickly started scrambling to do damage control ahead of the release, realizing the video’s contents would inflame longstanding rage against Chicago PD’s rampant abuses. Chicago police killed more people than any other comparably sized police departments from 2010 to 2014.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel prefaced the release with a lengthy press conference urging people to stay calm. “I believe this is a moment that can build bridges of understanding rather than become a barrier of misunderstanding,” he said, while Superintendent Garry McCarthy said he understood people “had a right to be angry.”

An attorney for McDonald’s family said in April that the video “starts out as an unjustified shooting, and it turns into some kind of statistic execution.”

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Roger West

IN YET ANOTHER “BAD APPLE” STORY - POLICE TASE BLACK MAN REPEATEDLY –AN THEN HE DIES

Linwood Lambert was not under arrest. Nevertheless, in an encounter resembling another high-profile incident where a woman in police custody was repeatedly tased by police and then died, Lambert died under suspicious circumstances after he was repeatedly hit by police stun guns.

Two years ago, three police officers discovered Lambert in a Virginia motel, where he was behaving delusionally, most likely due to the fact that he’d been using cocaine. They handcuffed him and put him in a squad car, apparently intending to bring him to a hospital to receive medical care. But Lambert never made it inside the hospital — or, at least, he never made it inside alive.

Video obtained by MSNBC’s Ari Melber shows Lambert kicking out the police car’s window and then running from the car to the emergency room door. The officers chase him to the hospital entrance, where they begin discharging their stun guns on him. At one point, while Lambert is lying on the ground, an officer is overheard telling him “every time you get up, I’m going to pop you.” Then they shackle Lambert’s legs, and lead him back into the police car, where they tase him again. While he is in the car, an officer tells the bound man that he will be tased another time unless he sits up.



In total, Melber reports, three officers discharged they tasers 20 times in about a half-an-hour of their encounter with Lambert.

After police shackled Lambert at the hospital door they arrested him and drove to the jail. By the time they arrived, however, Lambert was unconscious. The officers checked his pulse, attempted CPR and called for an ambulance, which took him back to the same hospital where he was tased. By the time he made it inside the hospital, his heart rate had already flatlined.

Lambert’s official autopsy show that the cause of death was “cocaine intoxication,” although the same autopsy shows that he had “less than 0.01 mg/L” of the drug in his blood, a low (if not impossible) level for an overdose. All three of the officers involved in this incident have since been promoted.

Lambert’s sister, Gwendolyn Smalls, has filed a $25 million suit against the police. The video became public after a court order required police to provide it to Smalls.

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

EX POLICE OFFICER DANIEL HOLTZCLAW WHO REPEATEDLY RAPED BLACK WOMEN WHILE AN OFFICER GETS ALL WHITE JURY

PURPORTED SERIAL RAPIST DANIEL HOLTZCLAW

The trial of Daniel Holtzclaw, a former Oklahoma City police officer charged with 36 counts of rape, sexual battery, and forcible oral sodomy of 13 black women, began on Tuesday. But there’s one glaring problem: there are no black women on the jury. In fact, there are no black people at all.

Holtzclaw worked for the city for three years. While on duty, he targeted poor black women with criminal records. According to Police Chief Bill Citty, Holtzclaw preyed on the victims by initiating traffic stops or approaching women for jaywalking.

“Traffic stops, some of the individuals were actually just walking,” the chief admitted in 2014. “Walking in their neighborhood and they were stopped, you know, searched, threatened in some way with arrest or something to that extent. And as a result of that, actually coerced them into providing sexual favors to him.”

One of those women was 17-years-old when Holtzclaw raped her. The anonymous teen had an outstanding warrant for trespassing, which the officer used as a reason to approach her in front of her mother’s house. Holtzclaw allegedly said that the girl was also concealing drugs, before he groped her breasts, pulled down her underwear, and raped her on her mother’s porch.

Holtzclaw, a former college football star, maintains his innocence. All of the alleged victims will come forward and testify during the trial.

But none of the 12 people responsible for determining his fate are black. Only four of them are women. All of them are white.

Racial bias in the jury selection process is at the center of a Supreme Court case that was heard on Monday. Four potential jurors in a capital punishment case in Georgia — all of whom are black — were struck from the jury pool. Evidence showing that the four were explicitly disqualified because of their race surfaced later on. Before that, an all-white jury sentenced the defendant to die.

It is illegal to eliminate potential jurors on the basis of their race, but discrimination in the selection process is a common problem across the country.

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Roger West

SOUTH CAROLINA COP PROTECTS AND SERVES FEMALE STUDENT WHILE IN CLASS

A Columbia, South Carolina sheriff’s deputy can be seen throwing a female student to the ground in video posted online by New York Daily News writer Shaun King.

The footage shows the officer approaching the student at Spring Valley High before grabbing her and wrapping an arm around her head and neck. The student is then seen falling backwards as he flips her over in her chair, before throwing her on the floor and pinning her to the ground. A teacher can be seen standing off to the side during the incident, but does nothing.

The officer can then be heard ordering the student to put her hands behind her back. King identified the officer as Ben Fields, saying that more than a dozen students have told him that they are “scared to death” of Fields.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told WIS-TV that the student was being arrested for refusing to leave class. However, he did not comment on the officer throwing her down.



REALTED: S.C. cop caught in school attack being sued for ‘recklessly’ accusing black students of gang activity

A local advocacy group quickly released a statement calling the officer’s actions “egregious.”

“Parents are heartbroken as this is just another example of the intolerance that continues to be of issue in Richland School District Two particularly with families and children of color,” the statement read. “As we have stated in the past, we stand ready to work in collaboration to address these horrible acts of violence and inequities among our children”.

Update: WLTX-TV confirmed that Fields was the officer seen in the video. He has been placed on administrative duty and will not be allowed to work at any schools pending an investigation.

“OBJECTIVELY REASONABLE”

A Cleveland cop was justified in fatally shooting Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy carrying a toy gun, according to a pair of reports released on Saturday.

The reports, which were commissioned by the prosecutor’s office investigating Rice’s death, were prepared by two experts from outside the state: Kimberly Crawford, a retired FBI agent, and S. Lamar Sims, a Colorado-based prosecutor. The reports will be turned over to a grand jury, which will ultimately decide whether to indict the cops involved in Rice’s death.

An attorney for Rice’s family called the reports a “charade” and blasted the prosecutor’s office for “releasing supposed “expert reports” in an effort to absolve the officers involved in Tamir’s death of responsibility.”

In a statement provided on Facebook, Subodh Chandra, Rice’s family attorney, wrote: “These hired guns—all pro-police—dodge the simple fact that the officers rushed Tamir and shot him immediately without assessing the situation in the least. Reasonable jurors could find that conduct unreasonable. But they will never get the chance because the prosecutor is working diligently to ensure that there is no indictment and no accountability.”

Nevertheless, both of the reports released on Saturday concluded that Rice presented a threat to police officer Timothy Loehmann, who opened fire on the 12-year-old boy just seconds after pulling up next to him outside a recreation center in November 2014.

“There can be no doubt that Rice’s death was tragic and, indeed, when one considers his age, heartbreaking,” wrote S. Lamar Sims, the Colorado prosecutor. “However, for all the reasons discussed herein, I conclude that Officer Loehmann’s belief that Rice posed a threat of serious physical harm or death was objectively reasonable as was his response to that perceived threat.”

Rice was gunned down while he was playing with a toy gun, which had its orange safety tip removed, in a park near his house. A man who saw Rice playing in the park called 911 and reported that a man appeared to be pointing and waving around a gun. Although the caller remarked that the gun may have been fake and that the person holding it was “probably a juvenile,” his observations were not passed along to the two the police officers who were later dispatched to the scene.

Crawford, the retired FBI agent, concluded Loehmann’s deadly use of force did not violate Rice’s constitutional rights. “It is my conclusion that Officer Loehmann’s use of deadly force falls within the realm of reasonableness under the dictates of the Fourth Amendment,” she wrote, noting that Loehmann had to make a “split-second” decision after encountering Rice.

“When he exited the police car, the officer was likely focused on Rice’s hands as they moved to his waist and lifted his jacket, and not on Rice’s age. Even if Officer Loehmann was aware of Rice’s age, it would not have made his use of force unreasonable. A 12-year-old with a gun, unquestionably old enough to pull a trigger, poses a threat equal to that of a full-grown adult in a similar situation.”

Grand jury proceedings are not public, and the decision by the prosecutor’s office to release the reports before the grand jury review is unusual.

In a statement released to the New York Times, Rice’s family attorney Jonathan S. Abady expressed concern over the influence of prosecutors and the possibility that “there will be no criminal prosecution.”

“Prosecutors exercise substantial influence over the grand jury process and whether an indictment will issue or not,” Abady said. “The video footage and other evidence readily available from the outset made clear that this was a completely unreasonable use of deadly force against Tamir.”

The two outside reports come despite a local Cleveland municipal Judge’s findings after reviewing all of the available evidence that there is probable cause for charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, and negligent homicide duty against Loehmann.

In December, records released revealed that Loehmann, a rookie cop, admitted on his job application for the Cleveland Police Department that his primary source of income prior to his hiring was “under-the-table jobs.”

Moreover, a troubling letter in Loehmann’s file from the Independence, Ohio Police Department where the officer previously worked, concluded that Loehmann did not possess the maturity necessary to perform well as an officer and recommended that he be “released from the employment of the City of Independence. I do not believe Ptl. Loehmann shows the maturity needed to work in our employment…I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct these deficiencies.”

[cross-posted from thinkprogress]

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A DISGUSTING TREND IS EMERGING

The New York City Police Department on Friday released a security camera video showing ex-tennis star James Blake being tackled, thrown to the ground and handcuffed by an undercover officer in a now infamous case of mistaken identity.

The incident occurred as Blake, formerly the world’s fourth-ranked player, was calmly standing by the entrance of a midtown Manhattan hotel, waiting for a car to take him to the U.S. Open.

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“BLUE KOOL-AID”

Prior to yesterdays trial start of six officers accused in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, outspoken former Baltimore officer and anti-police brutality activist Michael A. Wood, Jr. discussed the need for fundamental changes in American policing.

The officers are facing a slew of charges, including second degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Gray, 25, who died with massive injuries he sustained in a police van in April. His death led to widespread protests and civil unrest which was quelled when the indictments were announced.

Wood, who retired with a medical injury, has since spoken out about his time as an 11-year Baltimore PD officer and his observations about what’s broken in the criminal justice system.

In an interview with the Real News Network, Wood said the very basis of police work is wrong. Police are measured by the number of arrests they make, not by their success in deescalating and resolving situations peacefully.

“So, you have the metric in policing, which is arrest,” he said. “So every officer is judged upon their arrests. So you don’t get credit for deescalating a situation. Say it takes an hour to deescalate a situation but you could have moved on in 5 minutes by making an arrest, well then the easy route is that you’re going to get credit for the arrest… so you may as well do it.”

Wood said there are no “official” arrest quotas, but officers that don’t make enough arrests are seen as not working hard enough, he said. As a supervisor, Wood expected his officers to make about 10 arrests a month.

“Certainly that’s part of the problem, I was pushing them for arrests,” he said. About 90 percent of what he did as an officer was “go chase drug arrests.”

He was “brainwashed” by the “blue Kool-Aid,” but began to break out of the mindset doing surveillance. That’s when the “us versus them” mentality broke down, because Wood said he was watching the people he was targeting having normal, human lives.

“We planted a tree of criminal justice in this evil soil, so everything we get out of it is going to be bad as well,” he said. “It’s the proverbial fruit of a poisonous tree, because we’re starting from a bad foundation.”

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Blogger-In-Chief
Roger West

“I WILL LIGHT YOU UP”!

Newly released dashcam footage shows Sandra Bland's arrest before she was found dead in jail.

Justified? You be the judge.

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

JUDGE RELEASES VIDEO OF POLICE SHOOTING UNARMED MAN

One federal judge thinks the taxpayers of Gardena, CA deserve to see the video of police officers opening fire on three innocent people, killing one. With the city getting ready to pay $4.7 million to the family of Ricardo Diaz-Zeferino, an unarmed man shot for putting down his hands, Judge Stephen V. Wilson believes the defendants should not be able to hide from their deadly mistakes.

During an investigation of a stolen bike in 2013, officers interrogated Ricardo Diaz-Zeferino — who was looking for his brother’s bike — and two of his friends. In the recently disclosed dash cam video, officers yell at the three men to raise their hands. After holding his hands above his head, Diaz-Zeferino lifts his hat, drops his hands, and tries to pull up his pants. Then he is shot eight times by three officers, who claimed they feared the man was armed. Eutiquio Acevedo Mendez was also shot once but survived the shooting.



The District Attorney later ruled the shooting was justified, although the City of Gardena consented to paying the family of Diaz-Zeferino $4.7 million. But the Gardena Police Department and city officials kept the dash cam footage sealed, arguing the video’s circulation could lead to pre-judgment of the officers. On Tuesday, Wilson wrote that the city could not withhold the video on those grounds.

“The fact that they spent the city’s money, presumably derived from taxes, only strengthens the public’s interest in seeing the videos,” Wilson wrote in a lengthy decision. “Moreover, defendants cannot assert a valid compelling interest in sealing the videos to cover up any wrongdoing on their part or to shield themselves from embarrassment.”

The federal appeals court issued an emergency stay pending appeal, but not before the Los Angeles Times obtained and circulated the footage.

Aside from the video itself, Wilson’s point about taxpayer money is relevant, given the number of police shootings and brutality incidents that occur every year. Though it’s extremely rare for an officer to face consequences, city governments dish out large sums of money to settle civil rights suits. On Monday, New York City agreed to pay the family of Eric Garner $5.9 million. But settlement money does not come from the officers involved or their departments. Most do not pay a dime. Instead, taxpayers foot the bill.

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AS TOLD FROM A COPS PERSPECTIVE

Former Baltimore cop who has since blown the whistle on abuse and corruption he witnessed on the force and called the prosecutor in the Mike Brown case corrupt.

Michael Wood, who was a police officer for 11 years before retiring with an injury last year, blasted onto the national scene last month when he began tweeting illegal and violent things he saw his colleagues do to citizens.

On Wednesday, Wood went on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast to discuss law enforcement. When discussing the need for due process in police shootings, Wood called Robert McCulloch, the prosecutor who led the investigation into the shooting by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson of unarmed black teenager Mike Brown, a criminal.

“He’s a criminal. He criminally covered up that indictment. There’s no way around it,” Wood said. “That’s what they did and no one seemed to care.”

When asked to explain by Rogan, Wood pointed to a saying that “you can indict a ham and cheese sandwich.”

The job of the prosecutor when pursuing an indictment is to “select the evidence that will get the charge,” he said.

“So the way that system actually is, is if there’s four of us in the room right now, if three of us think he did it and one doesn’t, we don’t even listen to the one that doesn’t,” Wood explained. “If you’re not a reliable witness you don’t even come in for the indictment.”

Instead, McCulloch selected unreliable witnesses that tainted it, when he should have brought in evidence and witnesses that were consistent, Wood said.

“And you would have had an indictment. And you would have had a trial,” Wood said.

The former cop said he believed Wilson ultimately would have been exonerated because from a law enforcement perspective, the shooting was justified.

“We would have at least heard the case. The problem is, the police walk away with nothing. That’s why when you see the indictments — South Carolina, there was no uprising,” he said.

In June, a grand jury indicted Michael Slager, a white South Carolina police officer, for murder. Slager was caught on video shooting unarmed Walter Scott in the back while he ran away.





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Similarly, six police officers were charged by Maryland Attorney General Marilyn Mosby in the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died of serious injuries while being transported in their police van.

Part of the problem with policing, he said, is that officers are ingrained with fear early on and feel everyone is a threat.

“They run around with fear, and they will shoot in a heartbeat because they are so afraid,” he said.

In a June interview with the Washington Post, Wood described an awakening he had while working as a police officer in which he realized he was part of a system that was biased and wrong. While doing surveillance, Wood discovered how much he had in common with people the police department often targeted.

“You start to see the cycle of how these kids get put in the system at a young age, often for doing nothing wrong, and how that limits their options, which pushes them into selling drugs or other crime,” he said. “You start to see that they never had a chance.”

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Roger West

COLORADO COP COULD CARELESS ABOUT BODY CAMERA

A Colorado police officer pleaded guilty to attempted third degree assault after he was recorded on body camera video repeatedly beating a handcuffed man.

Video of the December incident obtained by KMGH shows Federal Heights Officer Mark Magness appearing to punch and kick a suspect while pulling him from a patrol car at the police station. A minute later, Magness slams the man into a concrete wall.

Video later shows Magness flying into a rage after the man lunges at him inside a holding cell. Another officer reminds Magness that he is being recorded by body cam video, but Magness continues to beat the suspect.

“I’m sorry sir,” the bloody man says as he is thrown into a chair. Magness ignores him, pressing his fingers into his eyes and temples.

Although the man appears to be pinned into the chair, Magness accuses him of resisting and straps him down.

“We’re going to need medical,” the second officer calls out.

“I don’t care, strap him to the chair,” Magness says as the second officer again points to his body camera.

Dennis Discua told KMGH that Magness also used excessive force on him in 2009. The officer pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and paid $517 in fines in that case.

“When I saw [this video] I remembered when he just grabbed me and I didn’t resist or nothing and he just pushed me and throw me all the way down,” Discua recalled. “The police are supposed to help people, not hurt people.”

The Federal Heights Police Department had not responded to a request for comment from KMGH. It was not clear if Magness had been suspended from the force.

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Roger West

SANTA ANA COPS HAVE SOME SPLANIN TO DO

A medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Ana, California plans to sue police for their conduct while raiding the facility last month, after producing footage showing two officers disparaging an amputee woman who was in a wheelchair.

OC Weekly published the footage on Thursday, which shows one officer asking an unidentified female colleague, “Did you punch that one-legged old benita?”

“I was about to kick her in her f*cking nub,” the woman responds, an apparent reference to Marla James, a local marijuana activist who was at the Sky High Collective when the officers conducted the raid. The same female officer is seen walking with James, who uses a motorized wheelchair.

“You know what, I was really nice to that woman,” James said of the officer. “I even complimented her on her hair. I treated that woman with respect and I have no idea why she wanted to kick my stump.”

The video was recorded on cameras secretly installed by the facility’s owners, who were expecting to be raided after Sky High failed to qualify for a lottery held earlier this year that granted 20 local dispensaries permission to operate within the city.

James and her husband said they were at the dispensary because they had been informed by their attorney, David Pappas, about the raid. Pappas said he was tipped off by City Attorney Sonia Carvalho.

“We were there to make sure that the employees did not offer resistance,” she said.“We had trained them what to do, which was not to talk and do exactly what the police told them to do.”

Pappas released a 7-minute clip showing excerpts of the footage, which also shows the officers apparently disabling the dispensary’s security cameras. The video also shows one male officer taking a bite out of what Pappas said was a marijuana “edible,” a

“I don’t know if that’s [a marijuana] edible,” Police Chief Carlos Rojas told Voice of OC after watching the excerpts. “Where did the officer get it?”

While Rojas said his department is investigating the incident, police spokesperson Chris Revere told KTLA-TV that authorities want to see the full recording of the raid.

“We’re obviously concerned about the conduct that we saw in the edited video,” Revere said. “We’re also concerned that the video was heavily edited.”

[h/t] the raw story





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STAFF WRITER

“RACE PIMP”

News host Sean Hannity and conservative radio host Kevin Jackson tried to paint Ferguson activist Deray McKesson as a “professional protester” during a contentious interview on Tuesday.

“You haven’t been to the funeral of any cop that was killed in the line of duty, I’ll bet you that,” Jackson told McKesson. “I bet you haven’t saved up for that. I bet you haven’t been to the celebration ceremonies of cops who protected many, many black people for decades. I bet you haven’t been to the funeral of any of the kids that are killed that aren’t in these types of scenarios where race-baiters and race pimps like you appear.”

Jackson also accused McKesson of traveling around the US “starting problems” in the hopes of gaining notoriety.

“So, Kevin, have you been to the funerals of all the victims of Sandy Hook?” McKesson responded. “Or all the victims of Katrina? Do you not care about those, Kevin? Do you not care, Kevin?”

As McKesson went on, Jackson yelled at him, repeating his accusations.

“You should stop yelling,” McKesson said. “You want me to feed into this narrative. I’ve answered the question many times, and I’ll say it again to you: I’m going to places like many others, where the police have killed people.”

Before McKesson could continue, however, Hannity began chiming in on top of Jackson’s yelling.

“Do you believe cops are innocent until proven guilty?” the host asked.

McKesson responded by citing the attack on 15-year-old Dajerria Becton by former McKinney, Texas police officer Eric Casebolt. Casebolt resigned his position on Tuesday after video of the incident spread online.

“What I believe is that that girl should not have been abused, and Mike Brown should be alive,” McKesson said. “Freddie Gray should be alive.”

Hannity — who argued earlier this week that Casebolt could have been “shanked” by black teenagers during the encounter — began the segment by bemoaning the increase in “anti-police protesters” focusing on “select incidents,” and scoffed at McKesson’s intent to organize a 501 (c)(3) group to continue his work.

“Is this what you do for a living, you want to set up a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt organization?” Hannity asked. “Is this your profession now?” 

“I’m somebody who’s focused on justice,” McKesson told him. “Is this a question you’re asking me because I’m a person of color? Would you ask white people this, too?” 

“It has nothing to do with race,” Hannity replied after stammering. “It has to do with, is this your profession? You’re tweeting out that you’re a professional protestor.” 

Later, Hannity asked if McKesson had been involved in any “rioting” or “looting,” adding, “A lot of minority store owners lost their life’s possessions in these riots.” 

“There has been property damage in some cities, and I’ve not participated in that,” McKesson said. 

“Do you still believe that false and proven false narrative of ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’?” Hannity asked. 

“I think that Michael Brown should be alive today,” McKesson replied. “And that he was murdered by a cop who used his power because he knew that power would be protected.”

cript type="text/javascript" src="http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=4286724157001&w=425&h=263">

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

“MCKINNEY HAS A RACE PROBLEM AND THEY NEED TO GET IT UNDER CONTROL”

Appearing on Fox4, a former McKinney police officer blasted the conduct of Officer Eric Casebolt, who threw an unarmed teenage girl to the ground, before saying local police authorities need to nip their race problem in the bud before it grows.

According to former officer Pete Schulte, Casebolt was over the line when he roughly pulled 15-year-old Dajerria Becton to the ground, saying, “I don’t care what she was yelling at that officer. Anything would not have justified throwing her to the ground and pushing her down and throwing her face into the concrete like he did.”

Commenting on Casebolt drawing his service weapon as spectators came to help the screaming girl, Schulte called it “crazy,” before noting that one of the fellow officers who came to Casebolt’s aid grabbed his arm as if pulling the weapon down.

Schulte, who is now an attorney, had advice to the McKinney Police Department, saying they needed to get the fallout from the viral video “under control,” due to the racial implications.

“There is an indication based on watching the video that the white people who were around the officers weren’t talked to, they weren’t pushed away, they weren’t told to get on the ground, they weren’t put in handcuffs. The only individuals McKinney police were doing that to were those that were African-American,” he said.

“McKinney police have got to get this under control before tomorrow,” he stated “At this point in America, in policing, there’s too much out there right now with Ferguson. They got to get out there in front of this and make sure that citizens, even outside of the city of McKinney, understand that they’re going to do the right thing and take corrective action and that this was not racially motivated.”

Watch the video below from Fox4:

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Roger West

“OFFICER OF THE YEAR” SUSPENDED FOR ACTIONS AT POOL PARTY

ERIC CASEBOLT PROTECTING AND SERVING THE SHIT OUT OF MCKINNEY RESIDENTS

UPDATED 10:52 AM: LONGTIME MCKINNEY COP SAYS POOL INCIDENT UNJUSTIFIED AND THAT THE DEPARTMENT HAS A RACE PROBLEM

A video uploaded to YouTube on Saturday shows predominantly white cops detaining, handcuffing and, at one point, physically holding down black teenagers at a neighborhood pool. At one point, an unidentified white officer grabs a black teenage girl in a bikini by the hair and wrestles her to the ground. When other black teenagers try to intervene, that cop draws his weapon and briefly chases after two black young men. After these two African American young men flee, the cop returns to the girl in the bikini, forcing her face into the ground and then sitting on her in an apparent effort to prevent her from standing up.



This cop may face disciplinary charges. A statement issued by the McKinney, Texas Police Department says that “McKinney Police later learned of a video that was taken at the scene by an unknown party. This video has raised concerns that are being investigated by the McKinney Police Department. At this time, one of the responding officers has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of this investigation.”

The statement also claims that police responded to a “disturbance at the Craig Ranch North Community Pool” regarding “multiple juveniles at the location, who do not live in the area or have permission to be there, refusing to leave,” and that “Police received several additional calls related to this incident advising that juveniles were now actively fighting.”

It’s unclear whether some or all of the teens were actually at the pool without permission, but it appears likely that they believed that they were attending a pool party that was open to the public. Zahid Arab, a reporter for a local Fox affiliate, reported that a party at the local pool was advertised on social media.

The police department’s claim that “juveniles were now actively fighting” may also be literally true, but subsequent reporting suggests that white adults who lived in the neighborhood bear the lion’s share of the blame for this fighting. According to teens interviewed by BuzzFeed News, “the police were called after a fight broke out between adults and youths at the pool after the adults made racist comments telling the black children to leave the area and return to ‘Section 8 public housing.’” One white teen added that “when she and her friends objected to the racist comments about public housing an adult woman then became violent.”

RELATED:

[h/t thinkrpogress]

The police’s brutal treatment of black teens attending a pool party in McKinney, Texas has sparked a nationwide outrage. The video shows Officer Eric Casebolt grabbing 15-year-old Dajerria Becton, unarmed and wearing a bikini, by the hair and wrestling her to the ground. The seven-minute clip, posted Saturday, has already been viewed over 1 million times on YouTube and the incident was the number one trending topic in the United States on Twitter for much of Sunday.

But a reporter for Fox4 in Dallas, Zahid Arab, interviewed local homeowners who witnessed the incident and defended the officers’ conduct. These homeowners, according to Arab, say they believe the “officers’ safety was at risk.”

One of these homeowners appeared on camera, but allowed only her hands to be filmed. “I feel absolutely horrible for the police and what’s going on… they were completely outnumbered and they were just doing the right thing when these kids were fleeing and using profanity and threatening security guards,” she said.

Officer Eric Casebolt:
Officer Eric Casebolt was identified Sunday afternoon as the McKinney Police Department employee who was suspended after appearing in a viral video showing him roughly arresting teenagers at a Texas pool party, KDFW-TV reporter Zahid Arab reported.

Sources confirm:McKinney Patrol Supervisor Cpl. Eric Casebolt placed on admin leave following conduct at pool partypic.twitter.com/JaJMFWR5Ef

— Zahid Arab (@ZahidArabFox4) June 7, 2015

Casebolt was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into this incident. According to a LinkdIn profile in his name, Casebolt has worked as a police officer in McKinney since August 2005. He was named Officer of the Year in 2008, and his duties included neighborhood patrol, community policing and crime prevention.

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

“IF YOU FUCK WITH ME I’M GOING TO BREAK YOUR LEGS”

How many more of these stories do I need to post before we admit that we have a police problem, and it’s not “just a few bad apples”?



“Can you tell me why I’m being arrested?” Hamza Jeylani asks an officer in a video captured on his cell phone.

“Because I feel like arresting you,” the officer, who the American Civil Liberties Union identifies as Officer Rod Webber, replies in the short video.

This exchange happens after Webber calmly threatens Jeylani, who does not appear to be offering any resistance whatsoever. “Plain and simple,” Webber tells Jeylani, “if you fuck with me I’m going to break your legs before you even get a chance to run.”

According to the ACLU, Jeylani and four of his friends — all of whom are black teenagers — were pulled over after making a U-turn in a parking lot in South Minneapolis. The four young men had been playing basketball at a YMCA. Despite Officer Webber’s statement that Jeylani was arrested because the cop felt like arresting him, the police claim that they suspected the four youth of stealing the car they were driving.

Jeylani, however, says that the driver of the car had documents showing that he owned the car. And the ACLU adds that “police said the stolen car they were after was a blue Honda Civic. The teenagers, however, were driving a blue Toyota Camry.”

The video of Jeylani’s arrest was released alongside a report detailing racial arrest patterns in Minneapolis. It concludes that African Americans in Minneapolis “are 8.7 times more likely than white people to be arrested for low-level offenses, like trespassing, disorderly conduct, consuming in public, and lurking.” Meanwhile, Native Americans are “8.6 times more likely to be arrested for low-level offenses than white people.”

When cops go rogue and get sued and lose, it should come from their pension fund and not tax payers’ dollars. That might deter the “protecting and serving” the shit out of the black community!

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

IN BARSTO CALIFORNIA BLACK PREGNANT WOMEN GET TREATED DIFFERENTLY THAN WHITE WOMEN

Officials with the city of Barstow, California insisted this week that officers had acted properly when they used force to arrest a pregnant woman who refused to show them her identification, even though the charges were later dismissed.

In police body camera video obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal), an officer is responding to an apparent traffic dispute between Charlena Michelle Cooks, who is 8 months pregnant and black, and an unidentified white woman.



From THE RAW STORY:

The officer first talks to the white woman, who accuses Cooks of acting “all crazy.”

“I don’t see a crime that has been committed,” the officer admits after examining the woman’s car. After promising the woman a police report, the officer heads over to talk to Cooks.

Cooks explains that the argument occurred because the woman disagreed with the way she was driving in the parking lot. Cooks also said that the woman frightened her daughter, who was in second grade.

“She called the police for whatever reason, I don’t know,” Cooks says. “Should I feel threatened by her because she’s white? Because she’s white and she’s making threats to me?”

At that point the officer asks for Cooks’ name, but she insists that she does not have to tell him.

“I actually do have the right to ask you for your name,” the officer replies.

“Let me make sure,” Cooks says as she makes a phone call to someone.

The officer says he will give Cooks two minutes to verify his right to ask for her identification. But less than 20 seconds later, the officer and a colleague are performing a painful wristlock takedown on Cooks. The pregnant woman screams as she is forced belly first into the ground.

“Why are you resisting?” the officer demands.

“Please! I’m pregnant!” Cooks exclaims. “Please, stop this!”

ACLU SoCal staff attorney Adrienna Wong pointed out that Cooks had a right to refuse to show her ID.

“It would be a wrongful arrest, but it would be an arrest,” she noted. “Even if an officer is conducting an investigation, in California, unlike some other states, he can’t just require a person to provide ID for no reason.”

“Officers in California should not be using the obstruction law, Penal Code 148, to arrest someone for failing to provide ID, when they can’t find any other reason to arrest them,” Wong added.

ACLU SoCal staff attorney Jessica Price observed that Cooks, who is black, was handled very differently than the white woman.

“Imagine getting wrestled to the ground and handcuffed in front of your child’s elementary school,” Price remarked. “Imagine interacting with other parents afterwards. Imagine what kids who saw the incident tell your child. And if you think the whole incident happened because of your race, how does that impact your view of police?”




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STAFF WRITER

137 SHOTS FIRED AND PUNISHMENT FOR CLEVELAND POLICE A CAKE WALK

Back in 2012, an unauthorized car chase ended in the shooting deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, who were both unarmed. Nearly 60 police vehicles were involved in the chase, as was one-third of Cleveland’s police force. When the pursuit ended, 13 officers shot a total of 137 rounds at Russell and Williams. But before Saturday morning’s not-guilty verdict in the case against Cleveland Police Officer Michael Brelo, Brelo was the sole person charged with voluntary manslaughter because he stood on the hood of the victims’ car and shot 15 rounds — many of which were fired after the other officers stopped shooting. In the end, Judge John O’Donnell ruled that Brelo was justified in using lethal force because he feared for his life, and said he could not conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Brelo’s shots killed Russell and Williams.

Even as he faced criminal charges, Brelo remained on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the investigation, and Cleveland hasn’t been able to permanently fire a single officer involved in the incident. Indeed, the ruling and events that transpired after the fatal encounter highlight just how difficult it is to discipline officers who use lethal force.

Out of 100 officers who had a hand in the car chase, 85 officers were disciplined. However, not one of the officers was permanently fired for his or her role in the pursuit or subsequent shootout, despite their tactical blunders and disregard for department rules and instructions. In 2013, 12 supervisors were penalized for various infractions, such as breaking emergency driving protocol, but many disciplinary actions were reversed. For instance, one fired sergeant was rehired after an arbitrator concluded the supervisor was wrongfully terminated. The same arbitrator decided that two demoted supervisors could also return to their previous positions. Both determinations were backed by a county judge.

On the flip side, a contingent of nine “non-African American” officers who shot at Russell and Williams filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging they were unfairly sanctioned due to their race and media bias. According to the lawsuit, the City of Cleveland subjects non-African American officers to stricter disciplinary measures. The plaintiffs point to “assignments to boring and menial tasks in the gym with no of chance overtime, secondary employment, pay for court appearances, no chance to apply for promotions or transfers to specialized units, and being prohibited from engaging in active police work as they had grown accustomed and contracted for,” after the 2012 shooting. Should they win, the officers would receive monetary compensation for damages incurred.

While it may seem unprecedented that all 13 officers who fired at Russell and Williams were allowed to continue their policing duties, that privilege is par for the course. Across the country, officers are terminated - then reinstated with back pay, thanks to police unions and the arbitration process — a problem that persists in Cleveland, according to the DOJ. Through the arbitration process, independent mediators, or arbitrators, meet to review excessive force cases to determine whether or not officers are guilty or deserving of disciplinary action. In many cases, they reverse charges and disciplinary measures.

During its investigation of the CPD, the DOJ found that very few officers are disciplined for use of force, despite rampant police brutality. In fact, most punishments were doled out for smaller procedural violations, like not completing an official report. Last February, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, decried the arbitration process, claiming the system makes ridding the CPD of troublesome officers extremely difficult. For instance, Officer Shani Hannah stabbed her boyfriend multiple times, after which she was charged with felonious assault, sentenced to 6 months of jail time, and fired. After a police union rallied for her reinstatement, however, an arbitrator decided Hannah could return to her job.

The tendency for arbitrators to overturn police attempts to impose discipline is so strong that even Washington, D.C.’s Chief of Police Cathy Lanier has lamented that she can’t fire cops. “The arbitrator also limits what I can and can’t do with them…Some of the decisions they say I have to put them back in their old assignment. So, as the Chief of Police I’m not really the one making the decisions here,” she said.

Nevertheless, in response to the DOJ’s findings, the city of Cleveland agreed to implement systematic changes to police procedures. Under the consent decree, the CPD will alter its hiring and recruitment policies, reorient its crisis intervention strategy, and push for “bias-free policing.” Every officer will be equipped with a body camera by year’s end. And the department’s progress will also be closely monitored by a federal court. But the extent to which those changes can and will impact police accountability remains to be seen, especially with the pending investigation into 12-year-old Tamir Rice’s death.

Let's be real readers. For all the flag-waving talk about preserving freedoms and keeping government small and less obtrusive, a great number of Americans, mostly "Don't Tread On Me" tea nuts, prefer an authoritarian surveillance state with mass imprisonment and lengthy, mandatory sentencing as long as the authoritarianism is selective enough to only put the hammer down on people of color and the poor of any color. It's as simple as that.

[h/t thinkprogress]

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West